BLVD BLOG

Monday, April 6, 2009

It has been a hazy shade of winter driving cross country and then some...RI, ME, VT, IN, MI, MO and IL. We have been supporting Lotus, had a couple of our own shows and even an after-hours. Now we are off to NY and PA then time to head all the way back to Cali to open for the Disco Biscuits at the House of Blues - Sunset Strip.

MixMatchMusic will be supporting these artists’ Twitter and tra.kz campaigns by releasing a song on Twitter each hour throughout Wednesday, February 11, accompanied by information about the song and artist on Evolving Music.

“Great music deserves to be heard and Twitter is quickly becoming one of the things artists use to make sure that happens,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic. “tra.kz is a highly effective way for artists to connect with their fan communities on Twitter with great new music and related content, and another way MixMatchMusic helps them engage with their followers.

BLVD will be taking the tra.kz spotlight at 5pm PST tonight, so tune into to our Twitter accounts for all the details and a new song release.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Confluence, a lifestyle marketing company, in conjunction with Flaunt Magazine, present Artistic Stimulus Package (ASP), a three day lifestyle event series in three major California cities on January 22, 23 and 24.

ASP connects music and lifestyle brands for today's progressive and socially conscious consumer who is inundated with conventional marketing messages, yet still needs to make decisions on brands that will influence their lifestyle.

Confirmed participants in attendance include (subject to change) Ford Brady, A.D. 2013, Ludwig Clothing, Period Collection, The Wandering Marionettes, and Forrest and Fauna with more TBA. Indie artists BLVD, Vokab Kompany, J Boogie, Motion Potion and AdamandEvil will be gracing the stage nightly to delight the ear and engage the mind. A portion of the proceeds going to the non-profit H.O.P.E.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Through the majestic powers of online social networking, we came into contact with a man named Lee, who lived just outside Chico, California. It was to be our first time playing a show in Chico, and a first visit ever for me, and he was very gracious in giving us a place to stay the night. The crazy part is that it wasn't your typical beds in a room, but a custom-built tour bus.

Before loading our gear into the venue, we met up with Lee to check out the accommodations. The bus parked in the middle of the acres of almond groves outside Chico. After pulling into the drive and meeting our host for the evening, he took us inside. There were benches on either side of the bus that doubled as beds, with a master bed that could sleep two in the way back. The most striking aspect of the design was an actual wood-burning stove installed inside the bus. Lee assured us that the stove was only operational when the bus was stationary!

Lost on Main is relatively new on the scene in Chico, and definitely a unique spot. The outside window display featured a custom built sign reminiscent of a giant Lite-Brite, proudly displaying the venue's logo. The "o" in Lost has been replaced by a plasma ball. (You've seen them, the spherical glass orbs filled with ever-changing lightning). This was just a taste of what was inside.

The stage on the immediate right overlooks the long 2-story room. Every corner of the place is adorned with what seems to be every red green and blue light available on the market today. The front-of-house soundboard is encased in a giant visual graphic equalizer, giant light-up bars bouncing in time with the music. Full-length mirrors cover the length of the room, leading to bar, which end-to-end lines the entire back wall. Featured most prominently amidst the bottles of hard alcohol is a giant blackboard tracking the bartender's individual stats selling shots of absinthe. (First to sell 100 gets $500!) Clearly, we're not supposed to feel like were actually in Chico, California. Oh, and the happy hour prices are deadly: $1 for pints and/or well drinks. Clearly, we're not going to be able to walk out of here unassisted either!

The green room sits up the stairs from the stage. To get there, we walk through the owner's second venture, a still-being-constructed coffee shop called Lost Grounds. A giant work area reveals giant salamanders spray-painted black, a multitude of metallic animal horns, and more mirrors. An entire wall has been covered in a M.C. Escher replica. The green room wall is tiled with green (duh!) reptilian blocks, a plasma screen TV broadcasts images from the stage and dance floor, and a glass window overlooks the new coffee shop.

The show itself was fun, and we had a good turnout considering it was our first time playing in town. For a Wednesday night, people definitely like to stay out late… I was dead tired by the end of our set, but the fun was just getting going. The majority of the crowd from the club, made their way to the all-night pizza joint down the street. I was standing outside talking with some people, watching multiple people dancing on the tables inside.

Then quite suddenly and without warning, a severely intoxicated man bursts thru the door running (or, trying to run) down the street. After making it about 15 steps, he falls down on the pavement. After about 5 seconds, he gets up and manages to make it almost around the block. Meanwhile, two friends of mine had burst out of the door and run down the street after the guy. Just as this happens, the guy falls again. One of my friends (who still shall remain nameless) catches up to him and pushes him against the wall. With blood running down his face (probably from face-planting into the asphalt multiple times), he cries in protest, "Whaat the fuuuuck??!" I now understand that the guy had stolen money and gets an epic fail award for worst getaway ever.

Hard to believe the night was not complete yet, we went back to Lee's to warm ourselves by the wood-burning stove in the tour bus. A Bootsy Collins documentary in playing on the bus' DVD player… his band was truly quite freaky, but it's hard to argue with a guy who plays a star-shaped bass, with star-shaped sunglasses, and a rhinestone suit covered in star-shaped patches. Oh, and a horn section known as the Horny Horns.

By what must have been nearly dawn, I sink deeper and deeper into the bed, pulling the blanket decorated with a giant Grateful Dead logo around me. I'm pretty sure finishing that last can of PBR can wait until morning.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Our show at Slim's was something I was looking forward to pretty much from the moment we booked it. It's been incredibly difficult for me to formulate a blog for this show in my head nevermind actually typing!) because there were so many things to fit in to any kind of synopsis. But at the urging of my fellow cohorts, this show is really something I really want to share with you all. That being said, here goes...

It was a homecoming of sorts for us as well, since BLVD had been doing tons of touring during the summer, but without many performances in the Bay Area. We had also been selling hard copies of our new album "Music For People" at our shows for a couple months, but our Slim's show was the official release party marking the date when people could actually buy the album through online channels.

The album "Music For People" represents many things for BLVD. For starters, it's our first release with our MC: Souleye. The last time we performed at Slim's, Souleye was relatively new to the group, and the CD we were releasing (the all-instrumental and electronically produced "Digital Disorder") didn't even feature him. It was refreshing to have an album with his vocals. In addition, we finally had a release that was way more characteristic of our live show! Our previous efforts, while exciting studio projects, didn't really capture what people heard from us live.

It's always been a battle for BLVD to try and bridge the gap between the live music venue and the DJ club, anyway, and this show was no different. The show itself was fun to put together...our friend Random Rab opened things up at around 9pm, which was maybe a little early compared to when most people are used to seeing him, but I thought he tailored his set to the circumstances really well. It's not every weekend that a DJ is done playing by 10:30pm, haha!

We took the stage at around 10:30, and played every song from our album, in addition to some newer tunes that haven't been recorded yet. We've also been playing a lot of tracks from "Digital Disorder" that have been modified and augmented to include live instrumentation. It's always been fun for us to represent older material in a new format, which is what we've done with songs like Brown Eyes, Deep State, and Stained Glass.

After we were done, James Christopher took over the stage to present "Savage Journey," which was a project he had been working on for over a year mixing drum'n'bass with documentary footage from Hunter S. Thompson's life. What I didn't realize until the show was that it was actually a full-on stage performance...Chris as Richard Nixon, MC Manny Vibes and Rob Newell (a.k.a. Dave Laser from Seven Minute Style) as a secret service agents, DJ Majitope as a 60s-era hippie, just to name a few...it was a kind of organized chaos and a pleasure to behold. It was hard to know whether to dance to the banging beats or watch and try to unravel the mystery of what was unfolding onstage!

After the show came to a close, we all walked outside to see our sleek new Dodge Sprinter van that our manager had pulled up in earlier. People kept coming up to me offering me their congratulations, and it was hard to know whether they meant the van or the show we had just played, haha! The Slim's show was the first date beginning our upcoming fall tour, so it was nice to know that we'd be a little more comfortable driving east the following week. Anyone want to buy a '99 Chevy Suburban? (grin)

Check out this highlight video of the Slim's show by our friend Luxvibes...